


The Epic of Paris

by EpicNerd



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste Needs Help, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Is Not Okay, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Knows Gabriel Agreste Is Hawkmoth, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Needs a Hug, Adrinette | Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Bad Parent Gabriel Agreste, Betaed, Canon Rewrite, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Friends to Enemies, Gabriel Agreste | Hawkmoth Knows Adrien Agreste is Chat Noir, Ladrien | Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug, Ladynoir | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug, Marichat | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Needs a Hug, Multi, Not Canon Compliant, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 19:28:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29722095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EpicNerd/pseuds/EpicNerd
Summary: The butterfly effect is a strange and fascinating concept; one little thing can drastically alter an entire reality. So, what if that one little thing was that Gabriel Agreste was upfront with Adrien from the very beginning about being Hawkmoth? How much would the story of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir change?
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Chloé Bourgeois/Sabrina Raincomprix, Ivan Bruel/Mylène Haprèle, Juleka Couffaine/Rose Lavillant, Lê Chiến Kim/Ondine, Marc Anciel/Nathaniel Kurtzberg
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13





	1. Part One - Chapter One: The Spark

“Marinette! Your alarm’s been going off for 15 minutes! You’ll be late for your first day back at school!” Sabine calls up to her daughter from the kitchen.

Sticking her hand out to silence her phone, Marinette drowsily pulls her covers off.

“Got it, Mom...Coming,” the young girl says, already wishing she could go back to sleep.

Dragging herself out of bed and down the stairs, she wakes up more and more with each step, achieving a slightly better mood by the time she reaches the main level of her family’s apartment. Kissing her mother’s cheek, Marinette sits down at the table, where a bowl had already been put out for her.

“I bet you anything Chloé is in my class again,” she mumbles as the only explanation for her unenthusiastic demeanor.

“Four years in a row? Is that possible?”

“Definitely. Lucky me!”

Marinette doesn’t even appreciate her own sarcasm as she fixes her breakfast, the words bitterly reminding her that the only luck she had was unfortunate at best.

“Don’t say that. It’s the start of a new year! I’m sure everything will be just fine,” Sabine reassures, hoping that her daughter could be encouraged to make the best of having to deal with the girl that Marinette had told countless stories about.

The younger Dupain-Cheng nods, smiling for her mother. Unfortunately, putting down a box of chocolate powder that she had been using leads to a chain of events that caused an orange to roll down a slice of bread, over a butterknife, knocking over an open carton of milk, and rolling back around to push over a container of yogurt. Marinette only stares at the disaster before gloom takes over her face.

Sabine springs into action, quickly wiping up the milk before rubbing her daughter’s cheek, which makes Marinette smile once again. Once everything is cleaned up, Marinette eats her breakfast before getting ready for school. By the time she comes downstairs again, the apartment is empty. Knowing that her parents are already in the bakery, she continues down another flight of stairs, using the side-entrance to enter her parents’ store. Her mother is putting something in her backpack, and her father, Tom, is humming with his back turned to her. Spinning around, he presents an open box of macaroons to her, a beaming smile on his face.

“Dad, these are so awesome!”

“Glad you like ‘em.”

“Thank you, Dad. My class will love them. You’re the best!” Marinette says excitedly, taking the box from the father.

“ _ We’re _ the best, thanks to your amazing designs,” Tom replies, holding up a sketchbook turned to a page that holds a similar pattern to what had been crafted onto the cookies.

Marinette tackles her father in a hug, accidentally dropping the box in the process. Tom reacts quickly, however, and he catches it with his foot.

“Thanks,” Marinette says with a giggle before turning to grab her backpack.

Kissing both her parents’ cheeks, she dashes towards the bakery door, a far better pep in her step already. The bell chimes as the door opens and closes behind her, and she bursts out onto the streets of Paris, where citizens were already buzzing about in their lives. Marinette skids to a stop before she could fall out into the road in front of a car, but, as she is waiting for the pedestrian green light, she sees an old man slowly making his way across the street, clutching his back and leaning heavily on his cane.

Turning her head and seeing a car that was going too fast to be able to stop in time, Marinette surges forward, hooking her hand under the man’s arm and pulling him out of the way as fast as she could. In getting back onto the sidewalk before either of them could get run over, Marinette trips on the curb, slamming into the ground with a loud groan.

“Thank you, Miss. What a disaster,” the old man says, nodding his head towards the fallen box of macaroons.

Marinette panics and grabs the box before standing up and softening her expression to face the man.

“It’s no worry. I’m no stranger to disasters. Besides, there are still a few left,” she replies, holding out the box for the old man to take one.

He takes one and bites into it before his eyes light up.

“Delicious.”

Marinette bows politely before the ringing of the nearby school bell jerks her out of the conversation.

“Oh, no! I’m gonna be late! Have a nice day, sir!” she exclaims before running off towards the school.

Sprinting up the steps, past a janitor, and up even more steps, Marinette flew through the door of Ms. Bustier’s classroom, straightening up and slowing to a walk once she knows that she is safe from being late and getting in trouble.

“Nino, why don’t you sit in the front row this year?” the teacher calls out to a boy who is wearing headphones and sitting in the back.

Begrudgingly, Nino picks up his bag and moves down the rows of desks, plopping into his new seat and pouting slightly as he takes off his headphones. Being in the front means that he won’t be able to get away with listening to music anymore, which puts a new emphasis on the word “bummer” to the boy.

Marinette barely manages to take her own seat before a hand is slamming down on her desk.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” Chloé says, putting her other hand on her hip and looking down at the other girl.

“Here we go again.”

“That’s my seat.”

“But, Chloé, this has always been my seat.”

“Not anymore,” Sabrina says, sliding in from the other side of the bench, “New school year, new seats.”

Marinette rolls her eyes before turning her attention back to the bully of a blonde.

“So why don’t you go and sit beside that new girl over there?” Chloé says, her tone revealing that it was no request or suggestion.

The new girl in question looks up from her phone and turns her head to glare at Chloé, saying nothing.

“But-”

“Listen, Adrien’s arriving today, and since that’s going to be his seat,” Chloé starts again, pointing at the seat in front of Marinette before pointing back to hers, “this is going to be my seat. Get it?”

“Who’s Adrien?”

Chloé and Sabrina both giggle, as if the answer was so blatantly obvious that Marinette’s question could’ve been perceived as sarcasm.

“Can you believe she doesn’t know who Adrien is? What rock have you been living under?”

“He’s only a famous model,” Sabrina explains, speaking slightly softer than before and definitely softer than Chloé is.

“And I am his best friend. He adores me. Ugh, go on, move.”

“Hey,” the new girl pipes in, having leaped out of her seat after listening to Chloé for only a few moments, “Who elected you Queen of Seats?”

Chloé stutters, having never been challenged like that before. Noticing that everyone in the class was now watching, Chloé places one hand on the desk and leans back, trying to appear as cool and collected as possible as she moves back onto the offensive.

“Look, Sabrina. We’ve got a little do-gooder in our class this year. What are you gonna do, Super-Newbie, shoot beams at me with your glasses?” she sneers, leaning in close to the new girl’s face.

“Wouldn’t you like to know? Come on,” the new girl retaliates, grabbing Marinette’s arm and pulling her out of the seat.

The two girls then sit together at the front while Chloé sits next to Sabrina.

“Alright, does everyone have a seat?” Ms. Bustier asks.

“Chillax, girl. No biggie,” the new girl whispers to Marinette upon noticing that the other girl looks dejected.

“I so wish I could handle Chloé the way you do.”

“You mean the way Majestia does it. She says that all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing,” the new girl says, showing Marinette a picture of what appeared to be a comic book cover of a superhero before pointing at Chloé, “Well that girl over there is evil, and we are the good people. We can’t let her get away with it.”

The new girl slings her arm around Marinette, grinning as if she just alluded to an inside joke of theirs. Marinette, however, is still caught between dejection over Chloé and awe over the new girl’s bravery.

“Easier said than done. She likes to make my life miserable.”

“That’s ‘cause you let her, girl. You just need more confidence.”

Marinette smiles at the girl before taking the only macaroon that hasn’t managed to break or fall on the floor, and she splits it in half before handing one of the pieces to the girl.

“Marinette.”

“Alya,” the new girl replies, introducing herself in return.

“For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Ms. Bustier. I’ll be your teacher for this year,” the teacher says, underlining her name written on the chalkboard.

Chloé grimaces at the empty desk in front of her, already tuning out the teacher.

“He should’ve been here by now,” she mumbles, unlocking her phone under her desk to see if Adrien had texted her back since earlier that morning.

He had not, as he is still running through the streets, trying to navigate himself through the city that had always been his home and yet still felt so foreign and far away. Just as he rounds a corner and sees the school, he looks behind him and notices the family car following him. Deciding that now is not the time to catch his breath, Adrien continues running, sure that Nathalie wouldn’t do anything to cause a scene if he manages to get inside the school.

However, luck is not on his side, and the sounds of tires screeching and a car door opening accompany his first steps onto the stairs.

“Adrien, please reconsider. You know what your father wants,” Nathalie says, striding over to Adrien with Gorilla in tow.

“This is what I want to do,” Adrien replies simply before continuing up the stairs.

However, another sound brings him to a halt, that of an old man groaning. Adrien’s head whips over to see that an old man has fallen on the sidewalk, trying to grab a cane that was just out of reach. Without hesitation, Adrien brushes past Nathalie and Gorilla, heading straight towards the man. Grabbing the cane first, Adrien gently lifts the man back up before handing the cane back to him.

“Thank you, young man,” the old man says, smiling.

Adrien smiles in return before turning around. His jaw drops as he sees that Nathalie and Gorilla are now blocking the entrance of the school. Sighing. Adrien’s eyes sink to his feet as he trudged over to the car to be taken home, accepting defeat.

“I just want to go to school like everybody else. What’s so wrong with that? Please don’t tell my father about all this…”

Gorilla puts his hand on Adrien’s back as the two follow behind Nathalie, all three getting into the car and driving back to the Agreste Mansion.

Back inside, Chloé refreshes her notifications, again and again, her hopes dwindling with every swipe that Adrien was coming. Part of her had a feeling that his dad would’ve found a way to keep Adrien sheltered, but part of her had also let herself be so excited about getting to see her childhood best friend every day.

“Come on, Adrien. At least say something,” she whispers to herself.

As if on cue, she gets a text message.

‘Sorry, Chloé, but my father won’t have it. I’ll see you around eventually, I guess.’

Chloé’s breath hitches, and a wave of both sadness and anger wash over her.

“This isn’t how it was supposed to go; everything was going to be perfect! I even had gone out of my way to have Daddy make the arrangements for Adrien to go here in the first place…”

“Is Adrien not coming?” Sabrina asks, looking over at Chloé with worry.

“No, no he isn’t,” Chloé snaps back, shutting her phone off.

Turning to face the teacher, Chloé lets her head slump into her hands, glaring as the minutes ticked by until class ended. By the time the bell rings, the girl feels like she is physically red with her temper about to boil over. Stalking out of the classroom without even waiting for Sabrina, Chloé storms down the stairs and into the locker room, ripping her locker open and slamming her backpack into it. Fuming, she looks down at her phone again to see that Adrien hasn’t sent anything since he apologized.

“Things are supposed to go my way! Things are better when they go my way!” she snarls to herself.

As her emotions become more and more restless, a small, black butterfly flits through a slit in a nearby window, and it flutters over to Chloé, becoming absorbed in her phone. The world becomes dark to Chloé, and all that she can see is a man in a purple suit and a gray mask standing in front of her, calmly gazing at her as he leaned slightly forward on a cane.

“Souhaiter, I am Hawkmoth. I give you the power to take control of things, as you so desperately desire. When the time comes, I will call upon you to return the favor. Do we have a deal?”

He holds out his hand, not for her to take, but to gesture for her to make her decision. Any reason to turn this man down simply doesn’t exist in Chloé’s narrowed, tampered train of thought. All that is connected to her existence is that she had a problem, and the solution is being handed to her.

“Yes, Hawkmoth.”

The man turns into a silhouette of himself, made of the same dark matter as the butterfly, and he bubbles away. The world returns to Chloé, but she isn’t Chloé. No, she is Souhaiter, as the man said.

Rather than being a normal-looking girl dressed in yellow and white, her skin is blue, and her legs form into one wisp, as if her lower body is made of a cloud. In her hand where her phone once was now rests a golden lamp. Her hair is still pulled back into a ponytail, but the blonde color has darkened to black. Souhaiter looks at the lamp in her hand, knowing without having to be told what she needed to do.

“I wish…” she trails off, thinking of what to say to test her power, “...that Sabrina was right next to me.”

In a blue poof of smoke, Sabrina appears in the locker room. Whipping her head around, the girl looks at Souhaiter in bewilderment.

“Wasn’t I just outside-! What are you? What’s going on?” Sabrina exclaims.

Backing away, the girl trips on a bench, sending her crashing to the ground as Souhaiter hovers closer.

“Aren’t I amazing, Sabrina? At my simple word, I was able to bring you to me! I thought Daddy was the one who had the power to give me whatever I want, but now...now even he can’t tell me ‘no’. In fact, I wish that I was in Daddy’s office right now so that I could see the look on his face!”

In a similar puff of smoke, the akuma disappears, leaving Sabrina to balk at what just happened. In a panicked frenzy, she zips out of the locker room and makes a beeline towards the library. Bursting through the doors, she struggles to catch her breath as all heads turn towards her, including Marinette and Alya’s.

“Something’s happened to Chloé! She’s all blue and floating, and she has weird powers and was able to teleport me into the locker room even though I had been outside! It was so creepy and scary!”

Under normal circumstances, everyone would have just dismissed the story as a prank or a grab for attention, but Sabrina, in all her years of knowing Chloé, never spoke in such a way about the blonde. The library falls into chaos, and the principal, Mr. Damocles, is able to do very little to calm the teens.

“It's as if she's been transformed into a real-life supervillain! GPS, check. Battery, check. I am so outta here!” Alya exclaims, rummaging through her bag before standing up.

“Hey! Where are you going?” Marinette calls out, barely managing to grab Alya by her arm.

“Where there's a supervillain, there's always a superhero close behind! No way I'm missing this!”

With that, Alya runs out of the library doors, causing other students to follow suit. 

A similar sense of panic befalls the mayor when Souhaiter appears in front of his desk, an unnerving grin on her face.

“Who are you? How did you get in here? Security!”

“Daddy, it’s me. Look what I can do!” Souhaiter exclaimes, turning around to face the guards rushing into the room, “I wish that those guards would freeze in their places!”

To her command, the charging officers stop moving, as if they had been petrified. Souhaiter turns back to look at Mayor Bourgeois, who gasps in astonishment and horror.

“See? I can do whatever I want and have anything I want! Watch, I wish that Mommy was here, too!”

Souhaiter looks around for several moments before her smile fades, confusion and anger washing over her.

“Ugh, why isn’t this working?”

The world turns dark again, and the man with a cane reforms in front of her, still holding a composed demeanor. Souhaiter snarls and opens her mouth to spit out a remark, but he simply holds up his hand to silence her.

“It’s time to hold up your end of the deal, my akuma. I need you to get the attention of two superheroes. They’ll come to you if you make your presence known. Once they come, I need you to take their earrings and ring and bring them back to me.”

“And how am I supposed to do that when my powers aren’t working anymore, Hawkmoth?” Souhaiter asks, sarcasm dripping as she crosses her arms.

“Your powers are, should I say, limited. Someone else needs to use the lamp before you can make wishes again. Of course, I could just take your powers back altogether if you’d prefer,” Hawkmoth says, adding the last part upon noting Souhaiter's disdain.

“No, I’ll do what you say!”

Hawkmoth fades away, and the world becomes filled again. Souhaiter turns her attention back to André, and she zips over to the mayor, getting close enough to make him sweat.

“Daddy, I need you to do something for me, right now.”

“Chloé? What happened to you?”

“Take this and wish that you understood,” Souhaiter says, holding the lamp out to André.

Hesitantly, he takes the akumatized object from her, and he closes his eyes before shakily doing as he was told. As soon as the wish is granted, Souhaiter snatched the lamp back.

“Back to business; let’s see if I can get these supposed superheroes to come out and play. I wish that I and every news team in Paris were in front of the Eiffel Tower to watch it crumble on live television!”

With the dissipation of a blue cloud, Souhaiter, along with Nadja Chamack and other news reporters, appear in front of the Parisian landmark just in time to witness it erode and crash to the ground, sending citizens scrambling and screaming.

Adrien is also able to witness the fall of the tower as it was being broadcasted on his TV, and his eyes grow wide as his jaw drops. Stunned, he turns his head away to make sure that what he was seeing was real, but, looking down, he notices a small, black box on the table in front of him.

“What’s this doing here?”

Knowing that it was nothing he had seen before, curiosity gets the better of him, and he opens the box. Adrien has to shield his eyes when a bright, green light is released, but the boy is able to look again when the glow turns into a small, floating, black cat that yawns and stretches as if waking from a deep slumber.

“No way! Is this...are you…?” Adrien fumbles, his mind whirling at the creature in front of him.

“A kwami? Yeah. Plagg, nice to meet you.”

Plagg zips off, turning his attention to different things in Adrien’s room to see if they are edible. The teen is left to chase after him, just barely managing to miss him each time. Finally, once Plagg is distracted by a remote, Adrien is able to leap and tackle the kwami, managing to grab hold of him in his hands.

“You said that you're a kwami, right? And that ring in the box there is the black cat miraculous?” Adrien askes, not letting go of Plagg.

“Yeah. Wait, how did you know that it’s called a miraculous?”

“I have to tell Father about this.”

“Your father must never know I exist, or anyone, for that matter,” Plagg exclaimes, shooting out of Adrien’s hands.

“No, it’s okay! Father has a kwami, too.”

“What? But Master-”

“Come on, he’s told me about you before,” Adrien interrupts, grabbing the ring and motioning for Plagg to follow him.

Not sure of what to do, the kwami hides inside Adrien’s jacket as the boy runs out of his room and down the stairs, bursting into his father’s office.

“Adrien, what is the meaning of this?” Gabriel yells, looking up from his work.

“It’s the ring! I don’t really know how it got into my room, but it’s the ring that you were telling me about, right? The one that can help bring Mom back?” Adrien asks, presenting the ring to his father.

Mr. Agreste stiffens up before striding over to his son, taking the ring and observing it. Adrien had expected joy or maybe even pride in his father’s expression, but, instead, all he sees was resentment, as if the miraculous was insulting to his eyes.

“Where is the kwami?”

Adrien pulls back his jacket, searching the shadow for the vibrant, green eyes of Plagg.

“You can come out now, Plagg,” Adrien says softly, smiling down at the kwami.

“Plagg?” Nooroo, the kwami of the butterfly miraculous, repeats, emerging from his own hiding place.

“Nooroo?”

Seeing a familiar face, Plagg surfaces. Gabriel’s eyes hold a flicker for the first time in almost a year, for the first time since Emilie became ill. His plan has worked far better than he could have imagined. The guardian of the miraculouses indeed released the ladybug and black cat miraculouses to be used against his akumas, but he never thought he would be so lucky as to have the latter one be given to his own son.

“This means that we are already one step closer to bringing Emilie back to us. Instead of having to retrieve both miraculouses, we now only need to secure the ladybug earrings.”

“I can help!” Adrien says excitedly, beaming at the idea of getting to see his mother again, “I can wear this miraculous and help you.”

Gabriel instinctively opens his mouth to tell his son ‘no’, to tell the truth about how a miraculous was what hurt Emilie Agreste, and that using one has a price riddled with misfortune. But, after a moment’s thought, something occurs to him. If Adrien can use the miraculous to gain the ladybug wearer’s trust, then he can get close enough to take the miraculous from them, which would be a much shorter ordeal than his original plan.

“You, where was your master hiding you before you came here?” Gabriel asks Plagg, making the kwami flinch.

“Your guess is as good as mine. One moment, I’m with my friends. The next thing I know, I’m here and starving. You got anything to eat?”

“Shame. It would have been easier to go to the source in order to get the earrings.”

Gabriel looks back to his son, and he sees so much hope and joy in his eyes that painfully remind him of his wife. He hates the fact that he can’t look at his son without being struck with intense grief, but it is a fact nonetheless. He wants to be able to look at his son again. No, not just that. He wants Emilie to be able to look at their son again.

“Very well. Adrien, you may use the ring.”

“Yes! I won’t let you down, Father.”

“Just a moment. Your miraculous won’t work like mine. You have the power of destruction, while I have the power to grant others abilities. I want you to take a different approach than I am.”

“What do you mean?” Adrien asks, his vision of standing side-by-side with his father shattering in an instant.

“It will be more dangerous, but I want you to… pretend, for a little while, to be partners with whoever gets the earrings, as I’m sure the guardian intended. Letting their guard drop around you while also allowing you to see first-hand what their fighting style and techniques are could be very useful.”

“But… won’t that mean that I’ll be fighting against you? But I don’t want to-”

“Aren’t you also willing to do anything to bring your mother back? If so, then you’ll have to trust me and do what I say. Understand?”

Adrien deflates, looking down at his shoes guiltily. Noticing, Gabriel sighs before getting down on one knee so as to be closer to Adrien’s line of vision as he placed his hands on his son’s shoulders.

“I want to restore our family more than anything, and using multiple approaches will help us do that. I need you to get close to whoever controls the ladybug miraculous, okay? I’m counting on you. Your mother’s counting on you. I need you to trust me, Adrien,” he says, taking his son’s hand and placing the ring in his palm.

Adrien looks up, meeting his father’s gaze, before giving a small smile and nodding. Gabriel nods as well before straightening up and turning around, returning to his work.

“Your partner may already be transformed and on their way to survey the scene caused by my akuma. My first creation is your childhood friend, Chloé, as it would happen to be. She was rather upset by your failed attempt to go behind my back and attend school against my orders. Now, I have given her the ability to wish for whatever she wants, power when she was powerless.”

Adrien looks down at his shoes, stung by his father’s disappointment sewn between the new information. Taking a deep breath, he turns his gaze to his new kwami.

“Right, uh, how do I transform, exactly?” Adrien asks Plagg, who is still unsure of what weight this situation holds.

“In order to activate your miraculous, you have to say ‘Plagg, claws out.’ To use your special power of destruction, you have to say ‘cataclysm.’ You can only use your power once per transformation, and I’ll need to be fed afterward so that I can recharge. You got any camembert?”

“Camembert? Why such a smelly cheese as your food of choice?”

“I’ll have Nathalie order some. Don’t get distracted, Adrien,” Gabriel says, irritated that his son is wasting time.

Adrien tenses up before looking back at Plagg and taking a deep breath. He slips on the ring, noticing that it shifted to fit perfectly on his finger.

“Alright. Plagg, claws out!”

The kwami is sucked into the ring, and Adrien becomes absorbed in a bright, green light. Energy and warmth flows around him, and all he can see is a soft shade of green. What he can feel, however, is himself changing, transforming; not even just his clothes, but his body, as well. He could feel his muscles strengthening, and he felt powerful.

When the light fades, Adrien is covered in black leather from neck-to-toe. On his face is a black mask, and black ears are protruding out of his now-messy hair. A shiny, golden bell rests around his neck. Looking down at his hands, he sees that he now had claws instead of fingertips. Thin strips of neon green outline his faux-ears, circle his neck, and run down his back to branch off across his arms and legs.

“Too cool!”

Feeling something on his back, Adrien looks behind him to see a silver baton clipped to a belt that trails down to form a tail of sorts. Taking the staff, Adrien looks back to his father and nods in reassurance

“Go...Chat Noir,” Gabriel commands, nodding in return.

Chat Noir smiles at the name he has been given before sprinting out of the office and out of the house, into the streets of Paris once again. Gabriel gazes after him through the window, wishing that he had more time to contemplate options and come to a decision than he actually did. All he can do now is observe and hope that his plan succeeds.

On the other side of Paris, Marinette is watching the news on her desktop, dread consuming her as she watches the live events unfold on the screen.

“I hate first days back at school,” she mutters.

It feels impossible to tear her eyes away from the scene, but she does when she notices a little, black box with a weird design in red on top of it sitting on her desk.

“Huh? What’s this doing here?”

Thinking that the box may be something her parents left for her, she picks it up, opening it to see what was inside. She has to shield her eyes before she could glance at the contents of the box, however, due to a pink glow shooting out of it and circling her head before coming to a halt in front of her. The glow fades to reveal a small, red, hovering creature that smiles at her. Despite the warm expression, Marinette screams.

“Help! It’s a giant bug! A...a mouse! A...a bug-mouse!”

“Everything’s okay! Don’t be scared,” the creature says in a high-pitched voice, hovering closer towards Marinette.

“Bug-mouse talks!” the teen girl screams again, feeling blindly behind her for objects on her desk that she begins throwing at the creature.

“Listen, Marinette. I know everything may seem a bit strange to you-” the creature begins saying before Marinette slams a glass cup on top of her, “Okay, if that makes you feel safer…”

“What are you, and how do you know my name?”

“I am a kwami, and my name is Tikki. Now, just let me explain.”

Marinette, without lifting the cup or taking her eyes off of Tikki, reaches for the trap door and pulls it up slightly.

“Mom! Dad!”

“No!” Tikki exclaims, flying through the glass, “I’m your friend, Marinette. You must trust me. You’re the only one who can stop Souhaiter!”

“This must be some mistake! The only superpower I could possibly have is super-awkwardness… I know! Alya would know! That’s my friend. Well, at least I think she would… She loves superheroes! She’d totally be up for the job! You should go see her!”

“Marinette, you are the chosen one!”

Marinette still seems far from convinced, but she stands up, putting the glass back on her desk. She flinches and almost jerks her hand away when Tikki grabs her finger, but she lets the kwami guide her back to the box, where she can now see a pair of earrings resting inside.

“Souhaiter is an akuma, someone transformed by the power of the Butterfly miraculous. You will have your Lucky Charm to aid you, as well as the wearer of the Black Cat miraculous. You have to figure out what object has been akumatized and destroy it. Now, are you able to put the earrings on for me? They’re your miraculous.”

Trying to absorb all of what Tikki is saying, Marinette hesitantly takes the earrings over to her mirror and carefully puts them in.

“Okay, so all I have to do is break the object where the whatcha ma-call-it is hiding?” she repeats.

“It’s called an akuma. Which you must capture.”

“Got it! Capture it! And what’s that charm thing again?”

“The Lucky Charm! It’s your secret superpower!”

Marinette can sense by Tikki’s voice that the kwami is starting to become agitated by her not being able to really grasp it all, and she sighs in frustration and doubt.

“This is all going too fast, Tikki. I-... I won’t be able to pull this off!”

“Trust yourself, Marinette! Just say ‘Spots on’.”

“Spots on?”

The earrings activate, sucking Tikki inside of the miraculous. Marinette’s vision is completely encompassed in the same pink glow from before, and a warm, energetic feeling moves throughout her entire being. Looking down, she sees her body be encased in a suit of red with black spots sprinkled over it. Pure black material covers her neck, biceps, ribcage, and wraps behind her thighs and knees. She also feels shoulder pads and something else appear, but she can not see the latter due to it being on her face. Another change that she can’t see is that her black hair changes to have red tips halfway up her pigtails, shining the same shade as her suit.

The last thing to appear before the pink light fades is a yo-yo attached to her hip. Standing in her room once again, Marinette hesitantly looks in the mirror, almost not recognizing herself. Even if there wasn’t a red mask with black polka-dots on her face, it would still feel like she is staring at a completely different person.

“How does this thing come off? Tikki? If you can hear me, I want my normal clothes back. I’m not going anywhere!” Marinette calls out to the empty room.

Walking back towards the box, she notices the screen once again, where the news anchor, Nadja Chamack, is talking.

“Souhaiter has thankfully turned her attention away from me and is now heading towards the Montparnasse Tower. The monster seems to be unstoppable!”

The camera feed cuts from Nadja and focuses on Souhaiter. However, Marinette’s focus is on something else moving across the screen.

“Alya?” Marinette exclaimes with a gasp.

“Marinette! Did you get home okay?” Sabine’s voice calls up.

“Uhh...yeah, Mom! Just super!”

Hearing her mother coming up the stairs, Marinette panics and quickly zips up her room and out onto the balcony through the skylight.

“Okay, I have special powers!...and apparently this amazing super yo-yo thingie?”

Marinette unclasps it from her hip, examining the yo-yo before swinging it out towards a chimney on the next street over. It wraps around the bricks, the string going taut. Hesitant that it would even hold at such a distance, she gives it a small tug. That proves to be a bad idea, as she is launched through the air towards the chimney. However, before she can reach it, the yo-yo unravels, letting her fly even further through the Parisian sky.

Chat Noir has his staff extended between two rooftops, and he is walking across it like a tightrope when he hears screaming up above him. He barely has time to register a red blob flying towards him before it is crashing into him. They both plummet to the ground, but he feels something thin and tight wrap around both of them. When they don’t hit the ground, he looks up and sees what appears to be a yo-yo having wrapped around his staff and both of them, leaving them dangling in the air.

Finally, Chat Noir looks at the red blob that is tied to him, a girl in a suit of similar material to him. Realizing that she must be the wearer of the ladybug miraculous, his father’s words of pretending to be the partner of this girl, to act as if they are completely on the same side.

“Well, hey there. Nice of you to drop in!” he says with a smile.

The yo-yo releases and they fall the rest of the short distance to the ground, barely making a thud.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“I’m Chat Noir. And you?”

“I’m Ma...er...Mah...uhh,” the girl rambles, distractedly trying to pull her yo-yo down.

Her pulling dislodges his staff, and it, along with the yo-yo, comes falling down. For the second time, red crashes into him, hitting him on the head.

“-Madly clumsy. I’m so clumsy,” the girl seems to finish her sentence, looking over him with worry.

“No sweat, clumsy girl. I’m learning the ropes, too.”

Chat Noir leaves out the part where he isn’t completely unfamiliar with the existence of kwamis and their magical abilities, but his words would have been silenced regardless by loud fireworks going off and what sounds like several tons of glass shattering at once.

“What the heck was that?” he asks aloud, sprinting off to find the source.

“Hey! Where are you going?”

“To stop the akuma, right? Come on; we are partners, aren’t we?” he calls over his shoulder before rounding a corner, leaving Marinette alone in the middle of the street

“Ugh. Trust yourself, trust yourself…” she mumbles to herself before using her yo-yo once again to swing after Chat Noir.

He watches from above, perched on a balcony, as Souhaiter hovers over the piles of glass shards still raining down from the now-skeleton of the Montparnasse tower. The akuma continues to shoot fireworks from what looked like a regular Moroccan oil lamp until she looks over and notices Chat Noir.

“Finally! I was starting to think I was going to have to burn all of Paris to find you!”

“What can I say? It was hard trying to find a more dramatic entrance than your fireworks,” Chat Noir teases, at ease knowing that it is just Chloé.

A purple, glowing symbol resembling a jagged butterfly appears in front of Souhaiter’s eyes, and her snarl drops to pay attention to whatever she is seeing, as it certainly isn’t what is right in front of her.

“Yeah, whatever. The other one isn’t even here, so this one will have to do for the time being,” she says after a moment in response to some silent, unseen observer.

The symbol fades, and the akuma’s eyes refocus on Chat Noir. Something about the look she gives him makes him almost lose his balance, and he instinctively holds his baton out in front of him defensively. 

“Your entrance is going to pale in comparison to your exit, alley cat!”

Souhaiter holds the lamp out in front of her, fireworks shooting out of the tip and straight towards Chat Noir. He narrowly jumps out of the way, the building taking the shaky hit, instead.

“Talk about an explosive personality!”

Chat runs in zig-zags, trying his best and barely dodging the fireworks.

“Where are you, partner?” he calls out, taking a moment to look around the skyline for any hint of red.

From a rooftop where a chimney obscures her, Marinette watches with a deep frown as worry consumes her.

“Oh, I can’t! I’m not going to be able to do it.”

Alya steps out of her hiding spot, trying to get a better shot of the scene on her phone. In doing so, she draws the attention of Souhaiter. The akuma fires at her, and Chat tackles her to the ground, shielding her as more glass explodes above them. The girl looks around in a panic, and that’s when she catches a glimpse of Marinette.

“What are you waiting for, super red bug? The world is watching you!” she calls out, angling the video recording to Marinette as Chat Noir helps Alya up.

Marinette becomes filled with courage, and she leaps down into the streets below.

“I highly doubt you’re a trained pyrotechnician, as this show is dull in more ways than one!” she says to the akuma before turning to Chat, “Sorry it took so long, Chat Noir.”

He merely nods in response before turning his attention back to Souhaiter, gripping his baton tightly. If she is truly his foe, then he would charge at it and destroy the lamp with his cataclysm, as that surely is where the akuma was hiding. But Souhaiter isn’t his enemy; she is Chloé, his friend.

“So, what now, Wonderbug?” he prompts instead, not letting her know just yet what he could do.

“My kwami told me I have to break the object where the whatcha ma-call-it... er, the akuma is hiding, and I can...use my superpower! Lucky charm!”

Marinette throws her yo-yo into the air, and glowing beetles appear and swarm the yo-yo before a corkscrew in a red a black-polka dotted pattern emerges and drops down into her hands.

“A real superpower there, huh? So, what’s your plan?”

“Hmmm,” Marinette hummed, looking at her surroundings for some sort of answer.

Noticing that the window was destroyed when Souhaiter tried to attack Alya belonged to a wine store, a plan forms in Marinette’s head.

“I got it! Chat Noir, distract Souhaiter. Alya, use this and get a cork from one of those bottles in there,” she instructs, handing the corkscrew to the other girl.

The two run off, and Marinette swings up into the air to watch, waiting for the perfect opening to strike. That moment comes when Souhaiter raises the lamp to fire at Chat Noir. Marinette swings her yo-yo, and it wraps around the lamp. At the same moment, Alya waves the corkscrew in the air, a cork attached to the bottom. Pulling on the yo-yo, Marinette dives towards Alya, who tosses the lucky charm into the air, as the lamp is ripped from Souhaiter’s hands.

“What the-“

Souhaiter and Chat Noir both watch as Marinette grabs both the lamp and the corkscrew while in midair. Turning her back so that the akuma couldn’t see, Marinette jams the cork into the spout of the lamp. Before she can change her position again to land on her feet, she crashes into the ground, and the lamp flies out of her hands.

Souhaiter moves faster than Chat Noir, and she grabs the lamp.

“Really thought you did something there, didn’t you, super-losers?” she sneers.

Marinette groans, shifting her arms to be below her so that she could prop herself up on her elbows. Souhaiter raises the lamp, aiming it at Marinette.

“No!” Alya gasps, clutching her phone tighter as a sense of dread and helplessness washes over her.

“Ready to go out with a bang?” Souhaiter asks before firing more fireworks directly at Marinette.

However, with the cork sealing the lamp, the fireworks explode inside of it, shattering the lamp. The akuma is released, and Souhaiter falls to her knees. Dark matter consumes her that seeps away to reveal Chloé, who looks around in disgust and confusion. Chat Noir watches the little, black butterfly flutter away.

“What’s going on? What am I doing here?” Chloé asks.

“Who is this girl?” Chat Noir mutters to himself, trying to deny his amazement when looking back at Marinette.

He brushes past Chloé, walking up to Marinette and putting his hands on her shoulders.

“You were incredible, miss... uh... Bug lady. You did it!”

“We both did it, partner.”

Before anything else can be said, her earrings begin beeping. She instinctively cups her ear before looking back to Chat.

“I should get going. Our identities must remain secret.”

He almost argues but thinks better of it, sure that his father would want him to strategize rather than try and force an outcome immediately.

“Farewell for now, then. Let's do this again soon, okay?” he says instead, waving somewhat awkwardly before stepping over to crouch down next to Chloé.

Marinette turns to leave, but Alya approaches her before she can.

“Uncanny, amazing, spectacular! Are you gonna be protecting Paris from now on? How did you get your powers? Did you get stung by a radioactive ladybug? Oh, I've got a ton of questions to ask you, uh, miss... uhh…”

Realizing that she had never given herself a name to go by, Marinette ponders for a moment before smiling.

“Ladybug! Call me Ladybug.”

“Ladybug… Super awesome!”

Ladybug gives a two-finger salute before using her yo-yo to swing up into the Parisian skies, out of sight. Chat Noir watches her for a moment before turning his head back to Chloé.

“You’re alright; everything is perfectly safe. Do you want me to take you home?”

“Yeah, whatever. There’s no point in going back to school today anyway since my Adrikins won’t be there.”

Chat Noir stifles a cringe at the nickname, hiding it by scooping Chloé up into his arms. Still struggling a bit with coordination and using his staff, he is somewhat able to make his way over to Le Grand Paris, where he knows Chloé lives since he had visited her numerous times when they were little kids.

They reach the hotel just as the mayor begins giving a press conference in front of it, several cameras and microphones being shoved towards him.

“I am pleased to announce that we will organize a huge celebration in honor of our city's new protectors: Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

Chat hums quietly to himself, finding the word ‘protectors’ to be ill-fitting. Still, he finishes dropping Chloé off before returning to his own home, knowing that Plagg will need to be fed.

Several blocks away, Marinette watches the same press conference in her room, having just returned from the kitchen with a snack for Tikki. Both she and the kwami stop what they are doing when something new transpires on the screen.

“Just as Paris is about to celebrate the appearance of our two new superheroes, Ladybug and Chat Noir, a new wave of panic is sweeping across the capital as dozens of people are mysteriously transformed into bronze, somewhat resembling the lamp of the villain that had attacked just minutes before. It's simply unbelievable! These victims transformed into lamp beings are still like statues. The police are perplexed as to what will happen to them. Will they come back to life or be frozen in time forever?”

“Tikki, what’s going on? I thought we defeated him.”

“Did you capture the akuma?”

“What's capturing the akuma got to do with the other bronze beings?”

“An akuma can multiply, that's why it must be captured. If Chloé’s emotions become negative again, then the akuma will turn her back into Souhaiter! She’ll control all the bronze beings and use them at her will!”

“So that means... this is all my fault? I knew it! See, Tikki? I'm not cut out to be a superhero! I'm only gonna keep messing up.”

“Keep calm. It was your first time. You're going to go back and capture Souhaiter's akuma, and do it successfully!” Tikki tries to reassure Marinette, whose despair grows more and more.

“I can't! I told you, I'm clumsy! I create disaster all the time! I'll only make things worse for me, for you, and everyone. Chat Noir will be better off without me. I'm quitting.”

“You can’t! You’re the only one who can capture akumas and repair damage caused by supervillains!”

“If Chat Noir can't capture the akumas, then... just find another Ladybug. I told you, I'm not cut out to be Ladybug!” Marinette exclaims, taking out the earrings, “I’m sorry, Tikki.”

“No, don’t do tha-“

Marinette had squeezed her eyes shut so as not to have to look at the kwami, but she looks around now, not being able to see it anywhere.

“...Tikki?” she weakly calls out before deflating and putting the earrings back in their box, storing them away in her desk drawer, “I’m really sorry, Tikki.”

Marinette feels her legs give out, and she slumps to the floor, tears burning her eyes.


	2. Part One - Chapter Two: Ignite

Before breakfast, Adrien steps out into the garden, stopping in front of the statue of Emilie. Sitting on his haunches, he smiles when he feels Plagg land on top of his head.

“Mother, this is Plagg. I’m sorry I didn’t introduce him to you yesterday; it was a bit hectic of a day,” Adrien explains to the statue, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck before forcing himself to relax, “I also tried to go to school yesterday, real school, with Chloé. She was...upset when Nathalie caught me and took me home.

“I’m going to try again today. I know it’s not right to sneak out and defy Father’s orders, but I just...I can’t stand to be in the house anymore, not when I know you aren’t here. It always feels so lonely and suffocating.”

Plagg feels Adrien begin to sink in on himself, and the kwami’s eyes grow sorrowful before focusing on the statue that Adrien was still talking to.

“I know you would want me to keep a brave face and smile, but it’s so hard these days. Sometimes, it’s all that I can do to just get out of bed. But...that doesn’t matter anymore. Father and I, we’re working together to bring you home. He says that once we get Ladybug’s miraculous, he’ll have the power to find where you are and bring you home. I swear, I’m going to give it my all, because I really miss you, Mother.”

Adrien reaches up and rubs his watery eyes with his arm. Plagg opens his mouth to question Adrien on what he meant about what Gabriel said in regards to the power of the combined miraculouses, but he’s cut off by the sound of a door opening.

“Adrien, your breakfast is ready. I thought you were in your room,” Nathalie says blankly, unresponsive to the sight of Adrien crying.

“Thank you. I’ll be there in a moment.”

The assistant nods her head before heading back inside, leaving Plagg and Adrien alone with the statue of Emilie. Adrien stands up and brushes the little bits of rubble from the pathway off of his pants.

“I don’t know if you actually had a say in who your miraculous went to, but I’m really grateful for you being here. So, thank you,” Adrien says quietly, turning to smile at Plagg.

“Kid…”

“Come on. Father had your Camembert shipped overnight.”

The kwami brightens up at the mention of the cheese, and he excitedly zips forward.

“Well, what are we waiting for, then?”

Adrien chuckles before following Plagg inside, but he stops briefly in the doorway. Looking back at the statue, he gazes at Emilie’s face, memorizing the features once again.

Meanwhile, Nadja Chamack stands in the news studio, clutching her tablet. It is hard to keep a straight face knowing what she is about to report, but she does it anyway. Looking into the camera pointed at her, she speaks clearly and steadily despite feeling the opposite.

“The bronze beings are scattered all over Paris, and for the time being, they are showing no signs of movement. Police have cordoned off the area.”

Across town, even more cameras are pointed at the mayor and a police officer, Roger Raincomprix, whose arm is in a sling after his own failed attempt to take down Souhaiter the previous day.

“We won't stop until we find a way to get these people back to their normal selves, but for now, we're not making much headway,” André says, his expression grim.

Marinette watches the news feed as it cuts back to Nadja, feeling as if the world is slipping.

“Paris is relying on our new guardian angels, Ladybug and Chat Noir, to save us all. Our lives depend on them,” Nadja says, an image of the two appearing next to her.

Tom notices how uneasy his daughter seems, and he puts an arm on her shoulder. 

“Listen, I know how upsetting and scary this is, but don't worry, sweetie; we've got two superheroes looking out for Paris, and the best way of helping them is to show them that we're not scared, because we trust them.”

“But what if Ladybug fails?” Marinette asks, her gaze dropping in shame, feeling completely alone.

“Then I'd come and save you. Super Baker to the rescue!” Tom exclaims, grabbing a loaf of bread and whipping it around as if it is a sword.

“Thanks, Super Dad.”

She giggles and kisses her father’s cheek. Tom beams in pride at being able to cheer his daughter up. Marinette then excuses herself to her bedroom to finish getting ready for the day. Grabbing her purse, she pauses when her eyes drift to her vanity table. Part of her wanted to lock the drawer and throw away the key, but part of her wanted to take the earrings out and apologize to Tikki before trying to be Ladybug again.

Guilt consumes her when the memory of her brief time as Ladybug resurfaces. She feels as if the universe is making fun of her for believing that she could be anything but clumsy and useless at everything but making things worse. That certainly seems like the lesson to be learned, considering all of the statues littering her city. Paris needed someone to save it, but that person simply isn’t her.

Meekly, she opens the drawer and grabs the jewelry box. She places the case in her purse before leaving her room to head off to school. There, she finds Alya excitedly waiting for her. The other girl presents her phone with a site pulled up on it to Marinette.

“Ladyblog, bringing you all the latest news about the coolest superhero, Ladybug! How awesome is that? Check out the number of views since I posted the video!”

Alya takes back her phone, not even noticing Marinette’s expression dropping from a smile to a grimace.

“But why do you trust Ladybug so much? All these bronze beings…”

“She's gonna handle 'em.”

Alya sounds very confident about her answer, much to the confusion and frustration of Marinette.

“But what if she's not really cut out to be a superhero even though everyone thinks she is?”

“What are you talking about, girl?” Alya asks, finally taking a real look at Marinette, “Oh, wait. I know what this is about. You're scared, but don't be! I've seen her with my own two eyes, girl. Ladybug is a true superheroine! She's going to protect us all! I believe in her.”

Alya braces her hands on Marinette’s shoulders, giving her a reassuring squeeze as she smiles. Marinette couldn’t help but let her jaw drop slightly as her friend backed off and turned around to walk with her to class.

“A true superheroine,” she repeats under her breath as a thought crosses her mind.

Marinette looks down at her purse and is filled with certainty about what she should do. She walks with Alya, and, as she does, she notices a group gathering around Chloé. Much to Marinette’s surprise, Chloé looks timid in front of the group rather than thriving in the spotlight.

“So you really don't remember anything?” Alix, one of their classmates asks, not fully believing the other girl.

“You were totally going ballistic. It was so cool,” Juleka adds as she thinks about all the firework explosions.

“You were seriously out to cause some damage. Sabrina’s dad even broke his arm while diving out of the way of one of your blasts,” Kim finishes, crossing his arms.

Chloé’s eyes flit over to Sabrina, but her best friend isn’t looking at her. Following the girl’s gaze, she looks to the front doors of the school. Her scowl shifts to a smile when she sees Adrien walk into the courtyard.

“Hey, Chloé,” he greets, waving as he walks up to everyone.

Chloé pushes her way through the group, launching herself into Adrien’s arms for an embrace.

“Adrikins! You came! Everyone’s being mean to me and blaming me for what happened yesterday.”

“Because it’s your fault?” Alya pipes up, her voice saying for her that her words should be obvious.

Adrien tilts his head slightly in confusion, not finding it obvious at all. He looks down at Chloé, hoping to find an explanation as to why anyone was being mean or felt a need to place some sort of blame. His eyebrows furrow in thought, but Chloé misconstrues it as a look of anger or disgust.

She lets go of his arm, taking a step back. Her head whips back and forth between Adrien and the group, a weight settling in her chest that makes her want to hide away so that no one could look at her. Instead, she takes a deep breath and holds her head up high. Taking Adrien by his arm again, she leads him away.

Walking through the hallway, Adrien is recognized by multiple students who spring out at him to ask for autographs or photos. He complies with warm smiles, bitter as he was about such treatment. He was thankful when Chloé led him into a classroom, and he couldn’t help but smile at the fact that it was so normal-looking.

“This is your seat, Adrikins. I saved it for you. Right in front of me!”

“Thanks, Chloé,” Adrien replies before noticing Nino, who he offers his hand for a handshake, “Uh… Hey! Adrien.”

“You're friends with Chloé, then, huh?” Nino notes, nodding behind Adrien’s shoulder.

The other boy turns around to see Chloé take gum out of her mouth and hand it to Sabrina, who sticks it on one of the seats.

“Hey! What's  _ that _ all about?”

“The brats that sat here yesterday need a little attitude adjustment. I'm just commanding a bit of respect, that's all.”

“You think that's really necessary?” Adrien asks, raising an eyebrow as he gets down on his knee in front of the seat to try and get the gum off.

“Ah, you've got a lot to learn about school culture, Adrikins. Watch the master.”

Back outside in the hallway, Marinette and Alya are making their way to class after the warning bell rings.

“Alya, wouldn't you like to be a superhero and go out and fight monsters and villains?”

“Totally! I'm not scared of anyone. Why?”

“Oh! No reason…” Marinette trails off before discreetly transferring the earring case from her purse into Alya’s bookbag.

When they enter the classroom, they see Adrien picking at the gum on Marinette’s seat.

“Hey! What are you doing?”

“Uh...I-“

Adrien is cut off by Chloé and Sabrina laughing from their seats, and Marinette turns her head to scowl at them before turning back to Adrien. Coming to the conclusion that he’s just another bully, she decides to not give him the satisfaction of letting him see how angry she actually feels.

“Okay. I get it. Good job, you three. Very funny.”

“No, no, I was just trying to take this  _ off _ !” Adrien exclaims, panic washing over him.

“Oh, really? You're friends with Chloé, right?”

“Why do people keep saying that?”

Marinette huffs, staring Adrien down. Dejected, he looks away and sits in his seat while Marinette places a tissue over her own so as not to have to deal with the gum.

“Now do you see what I mean about respect?” Chloé asks smugly.

“I know I've seen him somewhere before,” Marinette mumbles to herself before looking over to see an image of Adrien and his father pulled up on Alya’s phone, “Of course! He's the son of my favorite fashion designer, Gabriel Agreste.”

“Daddy's boy, teen supermodel,  _ and  _ Chloé's buddy? Ha! Forget it,” Alya muses before taking her school supplies out of her bag, not noticing the little, black box.

“Why didn't you tell them it was Chloé's idea?” Nino asks after he and Adrien sat in silence for a few moments.

“I've known Chloé since I was a little kid. I know she's not perfect, but I can't throw her under the bus. She's like my only friend.”

“That is honestly the saddest thing I’ve ever heard. I'm Nino, and it's time for you to make some  _ new _ friends, dude.”

Nino holds out his hand for Adrien to shake, and the other boy accepts it with a warm smile spreading over his face. Chloé scoffs before looking down at her phone. There, she sees that several news articles have popped up about her, about Souhaiter. She grimaces at how the words ‘monster’ and ‘villain’ pop out at her. Her classmates’ words layer over what she reads, making her feel once again like all eyes are on her and glaring scornfully.

No one notices an akuma flutter through a window and over to Chloé, sinking into her phone like it had done before. The world falls into darkness, and Chloé finds the freedom from her peers to be refreshing. She takes a deep breath when the man with a cane appears, calm as ever.

“This is your second chance, Souhaiter, and this time you have extra help. No one will stop you from proving who you really are. Just remember, I'll need something in return.”

Souhaiter nods, and the darkness of the world shoots out and consumes her, fueling her transformation into someone far more powerful and free from crushing gazes. At the same time, the bronze beings awaken around the city, becoming animated and hostile before police forces have time to even process what’s happening.

Back in the classroom, however, no one has yet noticed that Chloé is gone. Instead, the teacher just begins taking attendance.

“Agreste, Adrien?”

Adrien looks up in confusion, not sure why he was being addressed.

“You say "present",” Nino whispers to him.

“Uh, present!” Adrien exclaims, standing up in his seat as his hand shoots into the air.

The class turns to laugh at him, but they stop short when they see Souhaiter. Everyone freezes in terror, not daring to move. The teacher, having not looked up, does not notice, and she continues.

“Bourgeois, Chloé?”

“Not here, nor will she ever be, again,” Souhaiter snarls standing up.

Adrien whips around, his eyes growing wide at seeing his friend transformed again. Souhaiter, with her phone transformed into a lamp once more, raises it above her head. Several students, including Adrien, flee the room while others duck under their desks as a firework explodes, causing the windows to shatter. Souhaiter grabs Sabrina before leaping out of the opening, leaving everyone stunned.

“Come on! Let's follow her,” Alya says, standing up and rushing towards the door.

“Uh…Oh, no. You go. I'm finding myself a safe place to hide,” Marinette replies.

“Girl, you're gonna miss Ladybug in action!”

Marinette grabs Alya’s bag, presenting it to Alya with the hope that she’ll notice the earrings when the time comes.

“You and Ladybug will both be better off without me.”

“If you say so,” Alya responds before rushing out of the room with her phone ready to record.

“Wait! Your bag!” Marinette exclaims, running after her.

Adrien, meanwhile, ducks into the locker room. Pulling back his jacket, he signals for Plagg to emerge.

“My first day of school and I don't even make it past roll call.”

“A day off? Now that's what I'm talking about!” the kwami exclaims, already imagining getting to go home and swim in the stock of Camembert.

“Oh, no no no no. We've got homework to do. Father’s surely counting on me to observe more about my 'partner'. Plagg, claws out!”

With Plagg summoned into the miraculous, Adrien transforms into Chat Noir. He sneaks out once the coast is clear, running out of the school to catch up to Souhaiter. It’s not too difficult to locate her, as she wasn’t able to get too terribly far while Sabrina was trying to pull her to a stop.

“Chloé, please, stop! Why’re you doing this? Stop before your father brings in the police, the army, the entire cavalry!” Sabrina exclaims, tugging with all of her might even though it could never match an akuma’s strength.

“And don't forget the superheroes!” Chat adds, springing out in front of them.

“You should be a little more afraid of getting your fur wet, alley cat,” Souhaiter exclaims, a pressured stream of water escaping the lamp directed at him.

Holding his baton out in front of him, he spins it fast enough to form a shield, deflecting the stream.

“Ugh! You wanted the cavalry? Well, here it is! Seize him!”

At first, Chat Noir doesn’t know who she’s addressing, but then he sees several bronze beings run amuck and surround him.

“Look out!” Sabrina yells.

Chat leaps up into the air, narrowly dodging two beings that end up crashing into each other. He tries to punch another one, but his hand is the only one that receives any pain.

“Bronze, right. If you can hear me, Ladybug, I could use a little help!” he calls out, sprinting away from a swarm of beings.

Alya, following the action, crouches down low by a building, thinking that she’s out of sight.

“What's she waiting for?” she whispers, not being able to see the superheroine anywhere.

Souhaiter sees her, however, and snarls.

“Crush her!” the akuma roars as a giant boulder manages to squeeze out of the lamp, rocketing towards Alya.

Chat Noir is barely able to throw his staff to lodge between the boulder and wall, but, while it doesn’t crush Alya, it still pins her down, effectively trapping her. Chat Noir is also captured, tackled by several bronze beings.

“Let go, metal head!” Chat roars.

“Help!” Alya pleads, struggling against the boulder.

Marinette watches in horror from her own hiding spot, trembling in fear. Her fingernails dig into her palms, and the pain makes her look down at her hands, where she is still holding onto Alya’s bag. Her heart and mind converge in that moment to give her a single command: do what is right.

Sprinting into an alleyway, she digs through the bag and pulls out the jewelry case. Opening it, Tikki is summoned once again. The kwami hums in excitement, smiling brightly at Marinette.

“I think I need Ladybug,” Marinette explains quickly.

“I knew you'd come around!”

“Well, I'm still not sure I'm up for this, but Alya's in danger. I can't sit back and do nothing. Tikki, spots on!”

Marinette is absorbed in the magic of the miraculous, tapping into its power to transform and become Ladybug. The superhero darts out of the alley and swings her yo-yo out to wrap around the boulder. Giving it a hard yank, Alya is given enough room to escape.

You can't stay here. It's too dangerous,” Ladybug says, retrieving Chat Noir’s staff.

Catching up with the bronze beings holding Chat Noir captive while being led by Souhaiter, Ladybug tosses the staff through the air.

“Chat Noir! Extend it!”

Turning his head, he is able to see and grab the baton. He does as he’s told, sending the two bronze beings holding him flying back. Ladybug leaps onto a lamppost and then onto a rooftop before throwing her yo-yo to latch onto Chat and pull him up into the air. He lands beside her, admittedly a bit roughly, considering his angle and velocity.

“Sorry I was late,” Ladybug says, helping him up.

“Why’d you pull us up here? Shouldn’t we be down there? Aren't we going to take care of 'em?” Chat Noir asks, having expected her to swing into battle like he did.

“No. If we wanna save them all, then we go to the source. Our focus has to be on Souhaiter or else the akuma will never stop.”

Chat Noir nods, and the two follow along from the rooftops as Souhaiter and her army of bronze beings make their way through the city and towards the Eiffel Tower. Souhaiter and Sabrina disappear in a puff of blue smoke, reappearing on one of the top levels of the tower.

Several police units are already stationed nearby, including Officer Roger and accompanied by Mayor Bourgeois.

“I demand that young girl’s safe return!” André commanded through a megaphone.

“Help me!” Sabrina screamed, now trying to break free of Souhaiter’s grip.

“Stop fighting me! You’re my friend, aren’t you?”

“No! I’m Chloé’s friend, and I’d like her back, please!”

Enraged, Souhaiter lets go of Sabrina, but she steps behind her and aims the lamp at her.

“You know what? They can have you back; I’m done with you!” Souhaiter exclaims, summoning a whirlwind to shove Sabrina off of the tower.

The girl screams as she flies through the air, and Officer Roger sprints as fast as he can, hoping beyond hope that he’ll somehow be able to save her. Ladybug reaches Sabrina first, catching her in her arms. Landing on the ground, she puts Sabrina down, who runs into her father’s arms.

“I’ve got you. It’s okay. I’ve got you,” Roger says softly, embracing Sabrina before turning back to his officers, “We're clear to attack!”

“Wait! No, don't attack them! They’re citizens being used, and we don’t know if it’ll hurt them!” Ladybug exclaims, rushing up to Officer Roger.

“I have a new plan, unlike you! Move aside and let the pros do their thing. You've already failed once!” he snaps back, gesturing to his broken arm.

Ladybug balks before shrinking in on herself, the words stinging. She turns to Chat Noir, no longer able to look him in the eye as any confidence or courage is zapped out of her.

“…He's right, you know. If I had captured Souhaiter’s akuma the first time around, none of this would have happened! I knew I wasn't the right one for this job…”

Chat Noir was genuinely taken aback by this. In that moment, he wasn’t standing in front of some foe that was preventing him from doing what he could to get his mother back and make his father proud. No, he was standing in front of some vulnerable girl that had turned to him. He knew that, logically, he should agree with her and try to take her miraculous while her guard was so low, but his heart told him to do something completely different.

“No. He's wrong , because, without you, she'd no longer be here,” he says, gesturing to Sabrina before looking over at the bronze beings, “And because without us, they won't make it, and we'll prove that to 'em. Trust me on this. Okay?”

He places his hands on her shoulders and ducks his head slightly to catch her gaze, and, when she does look at him, he smiles reassuringly. She smiles softly in return.

“Okay.”

They both look up at Souhaiter, who, to their bewilderment, begins coughing and wheezing before spitting out a swarm of akumas that converge to form Hawkmoth’s face.

“People of Paris, listen carefully. I am Hawkmoth. Ladybug, Chat Noir, give me the ladybug earrings and the cat ring now. You've done enough damage to these innocent people!”

Chat Noir, upon seeing his father, snaps to attention, stepping slightly away from Ladybug. However, she herself steps forward, staring up at the villain.

“Nice try, Hawkmoth, but we know who the bad guy is. Let's not reverse the roles here. Without you, none of these innocent victims would be transformed into villains. Hawkmoth, no matter how long it takes, we will find you, and  _ you  _ will hand us  _ your  _ Miraculous! Time to de-evilize!”

Ladybug leaps up, scaling the different levels of the tower. Flinging her yo-yo, she captures and purifies akuma after akuma, making Hawkmoth disappear. Once the last akuma is cleansed, she comes to a stop and turns around to address the astonished crowd.

“Let me make this promise to you. No matter who wants to harm you, Ladybug and Chat Noir will do everything in our power to keep you safe!”

Pressing a button on her yo-yo, all of the purified akumas are released as white, harmless butterflies. The crowd cheers, and even Chat Noir gazes with amazement before forcing himself to snap out of it and catch up to her.

“What’s the plan? We’re about to receive a lot of company, and I didn’t set out any party games,” Chat Noir teases.

“Oh, you're quite the jokester, aren't you? But your comedic timing needs work,” Ladybug replies, her eyes darting around at the bronze beings closing in, “Up, we need to go up to reach Souhaiter.”

The two begin scaling the rest of the Eiffel Tower, reaching the level that the main akuma is on.

“Took you long enough! Seriously, I’d think that you had given up already if you weren’t so stupid!” Souhaiter snarls, sending a burst of fire out at the two and forcing them to split up.

“How’re you planning to capture the akuma?” Chat asks as he sprints and dodges more heated attacks.

“By using our powers! Lucky charm!”

This time, her miraculous summons a pocket mirror, which falls into her open palm.

“Now’s not the time to be focused on your looks, Bugaboo!” Chat exclaims, exasperated as he feels some of his hair being singed.

“I-I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with this. What’s your power?”

“My kwami says that I can destroy whatever I touch. If only that’d work on all of my problems!”

As Ladybug ducks to avoid an intense blast of heat, an idea begins forming in her head. Using her yo-yo to swing up and land in front of Chat Noir, pulling him out of the way just before being hit by a fireball, she whispers her plan in his ear before breaking away.

“Hey, Genie! Why don’t you wish that you could even stand a chance at being better than us!” she calls out, taunting Souhaiter.

“Yeah! And how about you wish for a better look, too! All that blue is honestly just sad!” Chat adds, springing around in random directions.

Souhaiter snarls, firing feverishly at the two. Her aim worsens as her temper heightens, and she becomes desperate as Ladybug and Chat Noir begin closing in on her while still easily evading her strikes.

“I’ll choose what I wish for, and I wish that Ladybug was right in front of me! Ha!”

To her wish, Ladybug appears in front of Souhaiter, who tackles the superheroine to the ground and pins her. Just as she is about to grab the earrings, Ladybug holds the mirror up, angling it so that the sunlight hits Souhaiter’s eyes. The akuma screams and falls back, giving Ladybug enough room to free one of her legs and swing it up, kicking the lamp out of Souhaiter’s hand and into the air.

“Now, Chat Noir!”

“Cataclysm!”

Chat reaches up towards the lamp. It disintegrates and turns to ash, releasing the akuma once again. Ladybug wastes no time, having learned from her mistake.

“No more evil-doing for you, little akuma. Time to de-evilize!” she exclaims, swinging her yo-yo out and capturing the akuma, “Gotcha!”

She releases the purified butterfly and watches it flutter off with a satisfied smile.

“Bye-bye, little butterfly.”

Souhaiter turns back into Chloé, who looks around in confusion. Chat Noir approaches Ladybug, his fist held up for her to bump.

“Not yet; I’ve still got one more thing to do,” Ladybug says before tossing the mirror up into the air, “Miraculous Ladybug!”

The mirror explodes into tens of thousands of little beetles that swarm off to different parts of the city, repairing every single bit of damage caused by Souhaiter.

“Whoa. Are you seeing what I'm seeing?” Chat Noir asks, watching the beatles work before disappearing.

“Yeah. It's beautiful and amazing. It's…uh… _ miraculous _ !” Ladybug exclaims, pride washing over her.

Finally, she turns to Chat Noir, and she fist-bumps him.

“Pound it!”

“Pound it,” he repeats, smiling at her.

He’s about to say something else when Ladybug’s earrings beep.

“Uh oh. Time to split. See you soon, Chat Noir,” Ladybug says with a wave before swinging off.

“I look forward to crossing paths again,” he murmurs to himself.

He gets lost in thought for a moment until his ring beeps, telling him that his transformation will give out soon. Shrugging his thoughts off, he darts off towards the school, able to duck inside an empty storage closet to release Plagg and become Adrien once again.

Feeding the kwami Camembert, Adrien takes out his phone, and he sees that he has several missed calls from his father. Panicked, he calls him back over video.

“F-Father?” Adrien addresses once Gabriel picks up.

“You disobeyed me, Adrien. Take a look around that school.”

Adrien feels his heart sink, his eyes dulling as he cracks open the door to look around the school halls, already filling up with students returning to class, before easing the door shut again and returning his attention to the screen.

“Yes, Father.”

“You will never, I say, never go back there again…”

“Father, no-“

“-Without your bodyguard. He will drop you off and pick you off every day. Nathalie has offered to organize you a new schedule. You'll be continuing your music, Chinese, and fencing classes and your photoshoots.”

Adrien’s sorrowful frown turns into a gleeful smile, and he feels Plagg hug him from inside his jacket.

“Thank you, Father!”

Meanwhile, Marinette and Alya are making their way back to Bustier’s room as they talk.

“So, by the time I went to the Eiffel Tower, it was all over. I'm way bummed,” Alya explains.

“Don't worry. You'll get your scoop eventually.”

“You're right. Next target: Ladybug, an exclusive interview!”

“Ooh. Sounds exciting,” Marinette replies with a giggle.

“Oh, wait! Even better: finding out who's really under that mask.”

“Uh-huh. Good luck with that one.”

The two enter the classroom and are about to head to the seats in the front row, but Marinette grabs Alya’s hand and pulls her to a stop.

“No, wait.”

Gesturing to the seats behind Nino, the two girls nod in agreement before sitting there.

“Uhh…You're in the wrong seat. Go on, get lost!” Chloé says, shooing them as she walks into the room with Sabrina.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil, is that good people do nothing,” Marinette quotes.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that I'm not putting up with your crud anymore, Chloé, and neither is anyone else around here, so take your attitude and go on, get lost!” Marinette exclaims, pointing to the front row seats.

The class begins laughing and cheering at Chloé being told off. The girl turns red in the face from anger before stomping over to her new seat and sitting down, Sabrina following close behind.

“Good job!” Alya says, high-fiving Marinette.

Adrien is the last student to enter the room, and he tries to wave at Marinette. However, she crosses her arms and turns her head away from him. His bright mood dims, and he takes his seat.

“Dude, you wanna make friends, right? Well, go talk to Marinette. You know, about the chewing gum,” Nino encourages.

“But what should I say to her?”

“Just be yourself.”

The words echo in Adrien’s head, and he mulls over what that means for the rest of the day. Right before the final bell rings, it begins raining. Most of the students rush out to get home as soon as possible to avoid the storm, but Adrien calmly retrieves his umbrella from his locker. As he heads towards the entrance of the school, he sees Marinette standing in the open doorway, holding her hand out to feel the rain.

“Hey,” he says softly, stepping up next to her.

Once again, she ignores him. He opens his umbrella to leave, but he pauses.

“I just wanted you to know that I was only trying to take the chewing gum off your seat. I swear. I've never been to school before. I've never had friends. It's all sort of new to me.”

Turning around, he holds his umbrella out to her. The two gaze into each other’s eyes as thunder rolls around them. Tentatively, Marinette reaches up and takes the umbrella. Their fingers brush briefly before he lets go, his hand dropping to his side. Just as she is about to say something, the umbrella snaps shut, closing her inside of it.

Adrien stares, wide-eyed, before bursting out laughing. Marinette peaks out over the edge of the umbrella, embarrassed, before laughing as well.

“See you tomorrow,” he says after composing himself.

Descending the stairs, he notices the family car waiting for him, and he makes his way towards it.

“First day of school and we already have two lovebirds,” Plagg teases, popping out of his hiding spot.

“Whatever,” Adrien replies before smiling and blushing.

Unbeknownst to them or Marinette and Tikki, Master Fu, the old man that had been helped by the two teens, watches them alongside his own kwami, Wayzz.

“Excellent choice, Master. May I ask, though, why you chose them, specifically? They are so young, and there were so many Parisians to choose from,” Wayzz notes.

“Miraculouses are very powerful and can have a negative effect on even those around the one that wields the miraculous with malicious intent. Many citizens that I came across in trying to find the people who would be given the ladybug and cat miraculouses had already become affected by Hawkmoth’s influence, even just ever so slightly. However, those two were the purest I came across. I know you can sense it just as well as I do that those two are destined for doing the right thing...and for each other.”

“Very wise, Master.”

The two turn to head back home.

When Adrien returns to his own home, he is surprised to find his father’s office doors open. Walking inside, he sees his father watching something on his tablet.

“ _ And because without us, they won't make it, and we'll prove that to 'em. Trust me on this. Okay _ ?” a news recording of Chat Noir says, making Adrien freeze.

“Care to explain this to me, Adrien? I know I must be perceiving wrong and that my son did not, in fact, comfort the only person standing in our way of bringing Emilie back,” Gabriel says coldly.

“Father, it’s not like that-“

“Then explain to me why you didn’t take the opportunity to take her miraculous! Don’t tell me that you’ve forgotten already what I’ve trusted you to do.”

Adrien winces and squeezes his eyes shut before opening them again to look at his father. He didn’t want to lie, but he couldn’t think of the right words for his actual explanation.

“I just thought that it’d be too risky. She hardly knows me, much less trusts me yet, so I thought that there would be too high of a chance if I asked now for her miraculous rather than waiting for later when she'd let her guard down for me.”

Gabriel stares him down for several moments before relenting and nodding in acceptance of the answer.

“Very well. You are dismissed to your room.”

“Thank you, Father,” Adrien says quietly before leaving the office.

Gabriel waits until he can hear Adrien close his bedroom door before turning around to face the portrait of Emilie. Pressing a series of hidden buttons within the portrait, a hatch opens up, and he steps inside of it. The hatch lowers him down deep below the Agreste mansion to a secret respiratory, a large room with an arched ceiling, barely lit by lights along the side walls.

A catwalk extends the length of the room down the middle, at the end of which is a circular platform covered in greenery. Shrubs and flora are not the only things that the platform holds, however. A glass-covered cryogenic pod holds the comatose body of Emilie Agreste, her face peaceful as if sleeping.

Gabriel approaches the coffin-like pod, placing his hand on the glass.

“Our son did well today, my love. We’re both working hard to be able to get the miraculouses that will bring you back to me...You may never forgive me for lying to him about what really happened to you, and he may not, either, if he ever finds out about my involvement in your disappearance. But, I swear to you, I’m going to make things right.”

As Gabriel is speaking to Emilie, Adrien is upstairs showing Plagg a photo album full of pictures of the woman.

“This one was taken on the set of the movie that Mother starred in,” Adrien explains, pointing to one of the photos.

“Woah! I didn’t know your mom was an actress.”

“Mhm. I’ve never seen the movie, but I’m sure she was amazing. She always is in everything she tries. Oh! This one is of the time she and I went to eat at the restaurant above Le Grand Paris for Mother’s Day. She absolutely adored the special passion fruit macarons they were serving for the holiday.”

Adrien smiles at the fond memories, but his eyes soon glaze over while looking over the pictures. Tears begin rolling down his cheeks as he flips through more pages, his frown and sorrow deepening with every smile from his mother that he faces. Plagg notices, and he flutters on top of Adrien’s head to comfort the kid.

“I’m sure she’s great. I can’t wait to meet her someday,” Plagg says softly.

“Yeah, me too. That’s why we have to succeed. We have to.”


End file.
